Silver Bullet Gauss status?

[Charistoph]

I'm guessing they meant HAGs when they said Hyper Velocity Gauss.  While HAGs are more widespread than SB Gauss are, they're also Clantech and there's no evidence that there's any sort of direct competition between the two weapons.

The funny thing that the HAG and SBG are about as different as LB-20X and LRM-20 (aside from range).

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Yeah, very different functions despite similar damage output.

[Col Toda]

When Silver Bullet Gauss came out in Maximum Tech I think the very First application I did was an Air/Space field gun emplacement.  5 gunnery for Automated and 4 for crewed . -2 for Flack and -2 for Anti Air Fire Control . That is a net 1 or 0 gunnery for it . When aircraft attack they have to make a pilot roll if they take damage to avoid becoming a lawn dart . LB-X get the same bonus . Both LBX cluster and SB Gauss does no damage to an air unit with FL Armor.  No damage taken no pilot roll needed . This is why the Armor was invented in the first place . HAG has the Flack bonus too but it does 5 point clusters of damage . This was the Niche that the SB Excelled in until the Clans made a counter for it . By 3095 Mixed tech becomes Advanced not experimental and not a poor investment to purchase HAG to replace SB Gauss on boarders that are shared by the clans then by ilKhan Age had use the 40 + years to gradually replace them everywhere.

Same Application.  Same Function.

When it came out it was FANTASTIC in it's niche even over value added BV wise. But by 3152 I only expect to see it toward Cappellen Space towards the Periphery.  Great weapon in it's time .
LB-X has slug munitions and a better range than most autocannon type weapons . It is capable of using Slug Damage to put holes in Armor and Cluster to exploit them . If the SB Gauss could use Slug and Cluster even with adding 1 ton and Crit to the weapon it would Never be largely Obsolete. 

This is a direct comparison / competition
 between SB Gauss , HAG and LBX . IN The Niche in which FL Armor  was invented for . FL armor on mechs vs Air Assets is rare true but it wasn't ment for mechs and combat vehicles they took advantage of FL Armor existence as an after thought .

I hope this gives more context than my previous posts . I tend to avoid being comprehensive as it may come close to violating rules of the forum.  Apparently the other people responding to the post use very different optimum applications than I did for this apparently (to me )niche weapon .

My experience in ground combat it is a lackluster weapon until the 3rd combat turn against mechs . Nice at immobilizing combat vehicles and maybe  early proto mechs . You tend to Hammer  / Anvil paired tactics with it. Fielding an LB 10 X might not get you the same range but the Slug option makes the weapons effective in the first 3 turns against mechs .

How different is other people's experience???

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Only the LB 2-X has better range than the Silver Bullet GR.  It's got a slight range advantage over the LB 5-X and three times the damage output for only a little over half the weight.

[Starfury]

The Silver Bullet GR shines when it's paired up with another high direct damage gun, ala the Carronade with its Gauss Rifle/Silver Bullet GR combo, or when you have multiples.  It's an LB-15x with low heat, non explosive ammo, and a 22 hex range. Put two or more on a mech/tank and you have a scary scattershot weapon, especially vs vehicles and infantry. Yes certain defenses render it useless, but many mechs don't use them.  It's one of the few weapons the Clans don't possess an equivalent to. I'd love to see on more chassis.

[Col Toda]

I don't expect to ever see it in alot more chassis as it is a whopping 15 ton weapon with 8 shots per ton ammo . As the only pairing that makes sense is a standard Gauss which is another 15 tons and accompanying ammo . This does not lend itself for optimumization . The Dragonfire 4F has a normal Gauss Rifle and a LB  10 X and pays a high price in speed .

A PPC, LB10X, and 2 light AC/2  as well as Thunderbolt weapons all have the same 6/12/18 weapon brackets appeal more in tactical design .

Because of weight concerns as well as one ammo type I tended to put them in space / air field gun emplacements in which neither is a serious factor . I think when it came out it was a great experimental niche weapon . It was very nice even optimal in that niche.  The battlefield it is still good vs combined arms with an opponent with combat vehicles.  It is lackluster against Clan or Inner Sphere mech only opponents.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

First of all, it has identical range bands to the standard Gauss Rifle, not 6/12/18.  Second of all, try actually playing it some time before writing it off so easily.  It's actually a highly effective weapon so long as you're not fighting one of the few mechs with FL armor.

[Natasha Kerensky]

Range-wise, SB Gauss pairs well with regular Gauss, ER PPCs, ER Large, and LRMs.  It’s easy to drop one in, say, a Falconer for a 5/8 platform.  (Or in many slower platforms like the Cerberus, Gunslinger, Nightstar, Pillager, or T-Hawk.)

The tough part is giving up the headcapper for the crit-seeker.  That, and the limited pool of sometimes inexperienced designers that the TROs/RGs pull from, is why the SB Gauss has not been more popular.  Logically, at a minimum, each of the units above would have an SB Gauss variant (probably deployed at a 1:3 ratio) for dealing with combat vehicles, airborne units, and achieving kill thresholds on BA.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

MAD-11D.

[Charistoph]

Thunder Hawk would be an excellent candidate for it.  It's a "pick a barrel to replace" candidate.  Replacing all 3 of them would be... unfortunate for anything airborne.

[Starfury]

The Rifleman with dual Silver Bullet Gauss is a aexcellent anti everything platform.  I can also see a Silver Bullet Gausszilla equivalent, as well as it being changed out on 1 for 1 installation on mechs that already have armor crackers.